I would rather this blog didn't become a website dedicated to condeming Brighton and Hove City Council, but with so much incompetence and injustice rife in one small city, we might as well start local before going global. Charity, or the lack of it, in this case, begins at home.

The London Road, a deprived area of inner Brighton, is to undergo 'regeneration'. I remember as a student at Liverpool being interested in regeneration. It was a buzz word and seems to have been for quite a while. I got excited about it as it sounded like it meant making environments more pleasant for poor communities. I doubt very much, however, that it means in practise what it is appears to mean in name.

The regeneration of Brighton (and every city) has usually involved knocking down slum areas or areas of poverty, or areas with working class people and moving those people out to ghettos on the outskirts of the city, only to invite monied people in to inhabit that same area. This bit is called …

The West Pier, pictured on the title of this blog, is being demolished to make room for this...



The West Pier is beautiful. It is the home of about a million starlings. The now ridiculously named West Pier Trust are in charge of the project to knock it down so that a gigantic sightseeing tower can replace the derelict but atmospheric remains of the pier.

The history of this whole project is fishier than the English Channel. The West Pier Trust website says,

In 1998 the Trust was awarded £14.2m by the Heritage Lottery Fund towards the restoration of the pier. Years of tortuous negotiation with the Heritage Lottery Fund with a series of private sector partners ensued against a background of sustained opposition from the owners of the Brighton Pier. Finally by 2003 all obstacles had been overcome and the Trust was on the brink of restoration. In March and May 2003 two devastating arson attacks destroyed the Pavilion and Concert Hall. The Heritage Lottery Fund decided in January 2004 to with…

Happy St Valentine's Day! It's still not too late to send one of these as a jpeg. Current potential recipients in need of being shown the love of Christ include Peter Tatchell, Stephen Fry and the editorial team of The Tablet.

It is official. This Council stinks to high Heaven and not just because they didn't give me a job as a relief administrator. George, Diane and I paid a visit to the Housing department of Brighton and Hove City Council. What followed would be laughable if it were not so poisonous. The sign above and the one below will tell you all you need to know about the priorities of this Council. One is situated on the outside and the other is placed in an interview cubicle on the inside. It is 'equality' for some and injustice and punishment for others. It is a tale of two cities. It is truly Dickensian.



George, Diane and I met a lady from Housing and City Support. She listened to George and Diane's story, about how they were evicted, spent a night sleeping rough before being placed in emergency 'temporary accommodation', where they have been, in the same room since then, clarifying to her that they are not partners and asking her for assistance in being re-housed. She list…

London for a Secular Europe

We support:

· Women's equality and reproductive rights
· Equal rights for LGBT people
· A secular Europe - immune to the Vatican's agenda
· One law for all, no religious exemptions from the law
· State neutrality in matters of religion and belief

We oppose:

· European Union collusion with religion (Lisbon Treaty Article 16c)
· The special status of the Vatican in the United Nations
· State-funded faith schools
· The economic privilege and political influence of the Vatican in Italy
· Taxpayers funding the Pope's State Visit to the UK this September
· Misogyny, homophobia, fascism, racism and xenophobia



The One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church

We support:

· Women's dignity and reproductive rights which safeguard the protection of the unborn child.
· Human rights for all which defend human dignity and freedom
· A fair and just Europe - immune to the secular, atheistic, amoral agenda
· Just law for all, with no exemption…

Well, that was an economic way of using public funds. I had my interview at the Metropole Hilton in Brighton. Three rooms were hired, a holding room for the interviewees, a testing room for Word and Excel skills and a separate interview room for the actual interview. Quite why they couldn't have done this at Kings House where the HR department resides is beyond me. A Hilton lunch for the Council staff was on the house. Your house.

The Telegraph reports that a Dublin church is staking a claim to be the final resting place of the original saint of lovers
Saint Valentine was a priest in ancient Rome, executed in the third century for performing Christian marriages, and buried there. But in 1835 an Irish Carmelite priest, John Spratt, so impressed and charmed Pope Gregory XVI that he was allowed to take Saint Valentine's remains home as a gift for his home parish. Now the Whitefriars Street Church in Dublin is preparing to celebrate the annual February 14 feast of love - but wants people to remember it more than once a year. "It was not uncommon at the beginning of the 19th century for local churches around the world to be given relics taken from the catacombs in Rome," said Carmelite priest Chris Crowley. "So Valentine is with us and we're very happy to have him," he said. In fact Saint Valentine's whereabouts were forgotten for over a century, before a…